Chapter 2: The Name in the Hallway
My sister was already moving toward the door when a nurse stepped in first.
"There's a man at the front desk," she said quietly.
"He says he's your husband.
He's asking to come up."
My sister didn't look at me.
She looked at the nurse.
"She already told you.
He does not come through that door."
The nurse nodded and left.
I could hear my own breathing.
My hand hadn't moved from my belly.
Then his voice came from down the hall.
Not shouting.
Calm.
That was always worse.
"I just want to make sure she's okay.
That's all I'm asking."
My sister stepped into the doorway and said nothing.
She didn't need to.
A second nurse appeared beside her.
Then a security guard.
He kept talking.
Something about a misunderstanding.
Something about how I wasn't well and wasn't thinking clearly.
The same words he always used when someone else was listening.
Then he said something that made my sister go very still.
"She has something that belongs to me.
I need it back before this goes any further."
He wasn't talking about me.
He wasn't talking about the baby.
My sister turned slowly and looked at me across the room.
May you like
She reached into her bag and held up her phone — not to show me the screen, but to show me she still had it.
Then we both heard him say a name neither of us expected.
